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FROM CROW-SCARING TO WESTMINSTER
GEORGE EDWARDS, M.P., O.B.E.
Foreword by The Rt. Hon. LORD AILWYN of HONINGHAM
Introduction by W. R. SMITH, M.P.
[Illustration: _Claud Harris_
GEORGE EDWARDS, M.P., O.B.E.]
FROM CROW-SCARING TO WESTMINSTER
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
BY GEORGE EDWARDS, M.P., O.B.E.
Foreword by THE RT. HON. LORD AILWYN OF HONINGHAM
(EX-MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE)
Introduction by W. R. SMITH, M.P.
(PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF AGRICULTURAL WORKERS)
_Illustrated_
[Illustration: Logo]
LONDON:
THE LABOUR PUBLISHING COMPANY LTD.
6 TAVISTOCK SQUARE.
_First published 1922_
(_All rights reserved_)
_Printed in Great Britain by_
UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, LONDON AND WOKING
FOREWORD
BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD AILWYN OF HONINGHAM, P.C.
(Ex-Minister of Agriculture) (_Chairman of the Norfolk County Council_)
Norfolk has produced many men of whom it may be proud and among them is
the author of this book.
I am glad to know that his friends have induced Mr. George Edwards to
write the story of his life, and it is with great pleasure that I have
assented to his request to write a few introductory words, as I have
known him for a number of years and been associated with him in a great
deal of public work.
On many subjects George Edwards and I may not agree, but on two points
at least we are united--in love for Norfolk and in devotion to the
interests of agriculture.
Born at Marsham in 1850, the son of a farm worker, George Edwards is a
notable example of the way in which adverse circumstances may be
overcome by determination and natural ability. The greater part of his
life has been devoted to efforts to improve the conditions of the class
to which he belongs.
He may, on looking back in the light of experience, reflect--as most men
on reaching his age must reflect--that he has made some mistakes, but
all who know him will agree that if he has done so, they have been
mistakes of the head and not of the heart.
His honesty of purpose and sincerity of aim, his straightforwardness and
conscientiousness, his strong religious principles, are recognized by
all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance.
He is a valued member of the Norfolk County Council and a respected
Justice of the Peace.
As one of the representatives of Norfolk in the House of Commons, he
enjoys the confidence and respect of men of all classes, including many
who do not share his political views.
It is with sincere pleasure and the most hearty goodwill that I commend
to all who appreciate the record of a strenuous career spent in the
pursuit of worthy aims this self-told story of the life of a
distinguished Norfolk man.
AILWYN.
_August 1922._
CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD 5
INTRODUCTION 11
CHAPTER
I. THE HUNGRY FORTIES 15
II. A WAGE EARNER 22
III. EDUCATION AT LAST 31
IV. PIONEERS AND VICTIMS 37
V. DARE TO BE A UNION MAN 54
VI. A DEFEAT AND A VICTORY 61
VII. DARK DAYS 75
VIII. FAREWELLS 90
IX. RESURRECTIONS 98
X. SUCCESS AT LAST 107
XI. UNREST 124
XII. THE GREAT STRIKE 136
XIII. DEFEAT 156
XIV. PARTING FROM OLD FRIENDS 173
XV. THE NEW MODEL 178
XVI. THE GREAT WAR 190
XVII. THE LABOUR PARTY 201
XVIII. PARLIAMENT 221
INDEX 238
ILLUSTRATIONS
GEORGE EDWARDS, M.P., O.B.E. _Frontispiece_
TO FACE PAGE
THE AUTHOR'S BIRTHPLACE, MARSHAM, NORFOLK 18
MR. AND MRS. EDWARD'S FIRST HOME AFTER
MARRIAGE, OULTON-NEXT-AYLSHAM, NORFOLK 32
THE FIRST OFFICE OF THE AGRICULTURAL WORKERS'
UNION, GRESHAM, NORFOLK 156
THE LATE MRS. GEORGE EDWARDS 184
INTRODUCTION
This book is more than the record of an adventurous and useful life. It
is an outline of the conditions of labour in our greatest national
industry during the last seventy years. It is the story of years of
struggle to raise the status and standard of life of the agricultural
workers of England from a state of feudal serfdom to the relatively high
level now reached, mainly through the organization of the Agricultural
Labourers' Union. In that long struggle no single person has done more
disinterested, solid and self-sacrificing work than my old friend and
colleague George Edwards. The Union which he founded some sixteen years
ago and in the ranks of which, at the age of seventy-two, he still plays
a vigorous and important part, is but the latest fruit of generations of
effort at the organization and education of the workers of rural
England.
Born in Norfolk in 1850 George Edwards commenced farm work at the age of
six. His long life of struggle against tremendous odds should be, and I
am certain will be, an encouragement and an inspiration to many whose
opportunities and means of social service are greater than his have
been. And surely no greater service can be rendered in our time to the
cause of national well-being than work devoted to the establishment of
labour conditions in the field of British agriculture in keeping with
the vital importance of that great industry.
It would be an unprofitable speculation to try to think of what the
author of this book might have achieved had his early life been spent
under happier conditions. Poverty, servitude, oppression, the lack of
what is regarded as education, as well as the active hostility of those
who sought in order to protect their menaced interests to crush him,
have all been factors in the life of George Edwards. But in spite of
adverse circumstances, and it may be because of adverse circumstances,
some men are capable of self-expression and refuse to be conquered.
George Edwards is such a man. And he has lived to see tangible results
of his life-devotion to the cause of the class to which he belonged.
I think of the author of this book as I met him first, thirty years ago,
when he was conducting a campaign on behalf of the persecuted and
exploited farm labourers of Norfolk. It is not perhaps easy for those
who dwell in towns and cities to appreciate the difficulties that had to
be encountered in the conduct of such a campaign; the fear of
victimization and perhaps the indifference of those on whose behalf the
fight was being waged, as well as the prejudice and hostility of those
in authority. It is no exaggeration to say that the man who dared to
raise his voice on behalf of the agricultural labourer at that time was
in imminent danger of suffering injury to purse and person. A born
fighter, George Edwards never counted the cost to himself of his
agitations and propagandist activity. Never had any body of workers a
more devoted or loyal servant. I have cycled with him, twenty miles or
more, to meetings in various parts of Norfolk, attended by thousands of
men, women and children from the surrounding districts, and even in his
later years I have listened to him as he spoke with that vigour and
enthusiasm and real eloquence which only strong conviction and deep
human feeling can command.
Like Arch, his co-worker in the cause of the agricultural labourer,
George Edwards inherited his fighting spirit and independence of mind
from his mother. And from his wife, in his early manhood, he acquired
the rudiments of the elementary education which was to equip him for the
business side of his life-work.
A true record of the life of George Edwards would not only be a record
of deep human interest on its personal side. He is the most lovable of
the many lovable men it has been my privilege to know. But the main
public interest and value of this book lies, I think, in the fact that
it will give readers a glimpse of the conditions of agricultural England
during the last seventy years, and some idea of the ideals and objects
of those who have laboured to bring the country worker into line with
other workers in the fight for democratic rights and political and
economic freedom.
Wellnigh seventy years have passed since George Edwards, the Norfolk
farmer's boy of six, entered on his life-work. In that time he has been
continually in harness. He is an ex-General Secretary of the
Agricultural Labourers' Union. Early in the war period he was elected an
alderman of the Norfolk County Council, of which he is a member. He
reached in 1920 the goal on which I believe his mind was fixed. In that
year he was returned to the House of Commons as the representative of
South Norfolk, the constituency in which a great part of his life had
been spent and which he had unsuccessfully contested in 1918. In the
House of Commons his contributions to debates on agricultural questions
are listened to with the respect they deserve, and I can sincerely say
that I share the feeling of all who know him, that George Edwards,
O.B.E., M.P., J.P., is not only a worthy representative of the great
cause with which he is associated, but a man whom I am proud to count
amongst my dearest friends.
WALTER R. SMITH.
From Crow-Scaring to Westminster
CHAPTER I
THE HUNGRY FORTIES
In the middle of the nineteenth century there lived in the parish of
Marsham, Norfolk, (a little village about ten miles from Norwich and one
and a half miles from Aylsham), a couple of poor people by the name of
Thomas and Mary Edwards. Thomas Edwards was the second husband of Mary
Edwards, whose first husband was Robert Stageman. He died in consumption
and left her with three little children to support. In due course she
married Thomas Edwards, by whom she had four children, the entire family
numbering seven. Thomas Edwards enlisted in His Majesty's Army, served
ten years, was sent over to Spain, and fought in the interests of the
young Queen Isabel.
In those days a man who had been a soldier was looked upon as being an
inefficient workman, no matter what his experience had been before
enlistment, and further, he was looked upon by the general public as a
rather undesirable character, no matter what his record might have been
whilst in the Army, and was considered fit only to be thrown on the
scrapheap. Such was the experience of Thomas Edwards.
Before his enlistment he was an experienced agricultural labourer.
Nothing was known against his character and during his ten years'
service in His Majesty's Army he bore a most exemplary character. When
the Civil War broke out in Spain this country decided to render help to
the Queen. Thomas Edwards was sent over with the 60th Rifles. The war
lasted about eighteen months and our troops suffered the greatest
privations. Few of the troops returned to tell the tale. Of those that
were not killed in action, many died of disease.
These heroes were made to believe that although they were fighting in a
foreign country, they were fighting for their own King and Country, and
were promised that at the conclusion of the war each man that returned
should receive a bounty of L9. This promise was never fulfilled, so far
as Thomas Edwards was concerned, nor anyone else so far as he knew.
Thomas, on being discharged from the Army, returned to his native
village penniless. The Army pay was only 1s. 1d. per day, and on being
discharged he expected that a grateful country would assist him to make
a start again in civilian life. But no such good fortune awaited him. On
returning to his village he sought to obtain work as an agricultural
labourer, but no such employment could he find. For weeks he walked the
roads in search of work, but could not find any.
At this period there was a great depression in trade, especially in
agriculture. It was in the years 1830 to 1833. It is on record that more
than half of the people were receiving poor relief in some shape or
form. Bread was 1s. 6d. per 4 lb. loaf. Married men received a wage of
9s. per week, single men 6s. per week. The Guardians adopted a system of
supplementary wages by giving meal money according to the number in
family, and by so doing enabled the farmers to pay a scandalously low
wage. The poor-rate rose to 22s. in the pound, unemployment was most
acute. In a large number of villages half the men were without work.
Thus this hero, like many others, was workless. The unemployed grew
restless and on November 6, 1833, a village meeting was held to demand
food. The inhabitants of the parish of Marsham held a meeting which was
largely attended, the unemployed turning up in strong force and showing
a very threatening attitude. The meeting, however, commenced with the
repetition of the Lord's Prayer. Following some very angry words, a
resolution was moved demanding work and better wages. To the resolution
were added the words: "The labourer is worthy of his hire."
This resolution was moved by Thomas Edwards, and a farmer who was
present told him he might go and pluck blackberries again or starve, for
he should have no work, and he kept his word.
What this threat meant was soon discovered. My father on his return home
penniless, unable to get work, and without food, was forced to pick
blackberries from the hedges to eat. One day this particular farmer
caught him in his field and ordered him off, telling him he would have
no ---- tramps in his field picking blackberries.
So insult was added to injustice to this honest man who had fought, he
was told, for his country.
Before Christmas in that year he sought shelter in the workhouse, which
was then at Buxton. There he remained all the winter. In the following
spring he took himself out and got work as a brickmaker.
The summer being over, he obtained employment as a cattle-feeder, but at
1s. per week less than other labourers; and although he had to work
seven days, he received the noble sum of 8s. per week. The reason given
for paying this low wage was that he had been in the Army and was not an
able-bodied workman. No more unjust treatment could be meted out to
anyone.
It was in the year of 1840--the year of Queen Victoria's marriage--that
Thomas Edwards married the young widow, Mary Stageman. She had been
left with three little children, and had herself been an inmate of the
workhouse during her late husband's illness.
The first child born to this couple was a son, whom they named Joseph,
the second was named John, and the third was a girl, whom they named
Harriet. Between this child and the next to live there was a period of
five years. All of this family are now dead with the exception of my
sister and myself. As the family increased, their poverty increased.
Wages were decreased, and had it not been for the fact that my mother
was able to add a little to her husband's wages by hand-loom weaving
(which was quite a village industry at that time), the family would have
been absolutely starved. Hand-loom weaving was a most sweated industry.
One man in the village would go to Norwich and fetch the raw material
from the factory and take the finished work back. This weaving was
principally done by women, who were paid for it by the piece, that is,
so many yards to the piece at so much per piece. A certain sum was
deducted to pay the man for the time spent in carrying the work backward
and forward to Norwich. If there was any defect in the weaving, then
another sum was deducted from the price which should have been paid, and
the employers never lost an opportunity of doing this. Poor sweated
workers were robbed at every turn.
I have known my mother to be at the loom sixteen hours out of the
twenty-four, and for these long hours she would not average more than
4s. a week, and very often less than that.
[Illustration: THE AUTHOR'S BIRTHPLACE, MARSHAM, NORFOLK.]
It was on October 5, 1850, that Mary Edwards bore her last baby boy.
The cottage in which the child was born was a miserable one of but two
bedrooms, in which had to sleep father, mother, and six children. At
this time my father's wage had been reduced to 7s. per week. The family
at this time was in abject poverty. When lying in bed with the infant
the mother's only food was onion gruel. As a result of the bad food, or,
properly speaking, the want of food, she was only able to feed the child
at her breast a week. After the first week he had to be fed on bread
soaked in very poor skimmed milk. As soon as my mother was able to get
about again she had to take herself again to the loom, and the child was
left during the day to the care of his little sister, who was only five
years his senior, and many a shaking did she give him when he cried.
At the christening the parents named the child George, a record of which
can be found in the register of the Parish Church, Marsham.
Whether my mother had any presentiment that this child had a career
marked out for him different from the rest of the family, I am unable to
say, but I sometimes think she had. That this was indeed so has been
lately brought to my knowledge.
I have recently revisited the scenes of my childhood days, and met in
the village an old man who declares that my mother often said that one
day her son George would be a Member of Parliament! What gift of vision
this mother must have possessed, for in those days it was never imagined
that the doors of Westminster would open to the child of such humble
parentage! Her prophecy was partly fulfilled in her lifetime, for she
lived to see me a member of a Board of Guardians and Rural District
Council, and chairman of the first Parish Council for the village in
which I then lived.
At the time of my birth my father was again a bullock feeder, working
seven days a week, leaving home in the morning before it was light, and
not returning in the evening until it was dark. He never saw his
children at this time, except for a little while on the Sunday, as they
were always put to bed during the winter months before his return from
work. The condition of the family grew worse, for, although the Corn
Laws were repealed in 1849, the price of food did not decrease to any
great extent, but wages did go down. Married men's wages were reduced
from 9s. to 8s. per week, and single, men's wages from 7s. to 6s. per
week. It was the rule in those days that the single men should work for
2s. per week less than the married men. Before the repeal of the Corn
Laws had the effect of reducing the cost of living to any great extent,
the great Crimean War broke out. This, it will be remembered, was in
1854. Food rose to famine prices. The price of bread went up to 1s. per
4 lb. loaf, sugar to 8d. per lb., tea to 6d. per oz., cheese rose from
7d. per lb. to 1s. 6d. per lb.--in fact, every article of food rose to
almost prohibitive figures. The only article of food that did not rise
to such a proportionately high figure was meat, but that was an article
of food which rarely entered a poor man's home, except a little piece of
pork occasionally which would weigh about 1-1/2 lb., and this would have to
last a family of nine for a week! Very often this small amount could not
be obtained--in fact it can be truly said that in those days meat never
entered my father's house more than once or twice a year!
The only thing which did not rise to any great extent was wages. True,
able-bodied married men's wages did rise again in Norfolk to 9s. per
week. Single men did not share in the rise. My father at this time was
taking 8s. per week of seven days.
I was then four years of age, and the hardships of those days will never
be erased from my memory. My father's wages were not sufficient to buy
bread alone for the family by 4s. per week. My eldest brother Joseph,
who was twelve years old, was at work for 1s. 6d. per week, my second
brother John, ten years old, was working for 1s. 2d. per week. My sister
worked filling bobbins by the aid of a rough hand machine to assist my
mother in weaving. My step-brothers apprenticed themselves to the
carpentering and joinery trade by the aid of a little money which was
left them by their late father's brother, who died in South America. My
other stepbrother went to sea.
In order to save the family from actual starvation my father, night by
night, took a few turnips from his master's field. These were boiled by
my mother for the children's supper. The bread we had to eat was meal
bread of the coarsest kind, and of this we had not half enough.
We children often used to ask this loving mother for another slice of
bread, and she, with tears in her eyes, was compelled to say she had no
more to give.
As the great war proceeded the condition of the family got worse. My
sister and I went to bed early on Saturday nights so that my mother
might be able to wash and mend our clothes, and we have them clean and
tidy for the Sunday. We had no change of clothes in those days. This
work kept my mother up nearly all the Saturday night, but she would be
up early on the Sunday morning to get our scanty breakfast ready in time
for us to go to Sunday-school.
This was the only schooling I ever had!
From my earliest days, as soon as I could be, I was sent to
Sunday-school to receive the teaching of the principles of religion and
goodness. My father used to keep our little boots in the best state of
repair he could. God alone knows or ever knew how my parents worked and
wept and the sufferings and privations they had to undergo. I
particularly refer to my mother. I have seen both faint through overwork
and the lack of proper food.
I owe all I am and have to my saintly father and mother. It was they who
taught me the first principles of righteousness.